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WMI Spawning Suspicious Child Process (Living off the Land)
Description
Detects WmiPrvSE.exe (the WMI Provider Host) spawning high-risk processes
such as PowerShell, cmd.exe, cscript, or other LOLBins.
WMI requires no external tools, generates minimal disk artifacts, and can
execute code on remote systems over DCOM/RPC while bypassing many controls.
Tune AllowlistedCmdPatterns for known-safe management tools such as SCCM.
- Rule type
- Scheduled
- Version
- 1.0.5
- Declared status
- Available
- Query frequency
- 1h
- Query period
- 1h
- Trigger
- gt 0
Declared MITRE coverage
Declared sources
Metadata from the source file. No dependencies inferred from KQL.
Connectors
Data types
KQL query
Original query, unchanged.
let Lookback = 1h;
let SuspiciousChildProcesses = dynamic([
"powershell.exe", "pwsh.exe", "cmd.exe", "cscript.exe", "wscript.exe",
"mshta.exe", "certutil.exe", "bitsadmin.exe", "regsvr32.exe",
"rundll32.exe", "msiexec.exe", "installutil.exe", "cmstp.exe",
"msbuild.exe", "wmic.exe", "net.exe", "net1.exe", "nltest.exe",
"whoami.exe", "ipconfig.exe", "tasklist.exe", "schtasks.exe",
"at.exe", "sc.exe", "reg.exe"
]);
let AllowlistedCmdPatterns = dynamic([
"ccmexec", "SMSAgent", "MOMAgent", "nessus", "qualys"
]);
let NetworkIndicators = dynamic([
"http://", "https://", "ftp://", "Net.WebClient",
"DownloadString", "IEX", "Invoke-Expression", "/transfer", "-urlcache"
]);
let CredentialIndicators = dynamic([
"lsass", "mimikatz", "sekurlsa", "dump", "sam", "ntds"
]);
let MDE_Results =
DeviceProcessEvents
| where Timestamp >= ago(Lookback)
| where InitiatingProcessFileName =~ "WmiPrvSE.exe"
| where FileName in~ (SuspiciousChildProcesses)
| where not(ProcessCommandLine has_any (AllowlistedCmdPatterns))
| extend
ChildProcess = FileName,
ChildCmdLine = ProcessCommandLine,
AccountName = InitiatingProcessAccountName,
AccountDomain = InitiatingProcessAccountDomain,
HostName = DeviceName,
EventTime = Timestamp,
NetworkActivity = ProcessCommandLine has_any (NetworkIndicators),
CredentialActivity = ProcessCommandLine has_any (CredentialIndicators)
| project EventTime, HostName, AccountName, AccountDomain, ChildProcess,
ChildCmdLine, NetworkActivity, CredentialActivity;
let SecEvent_Results =
SecurityEvent
| where TimeGenerated >= ago(Lookback)
| where EventID == 4688
| where ParentProcessName endswith "\\WmiPrvSE.exe"
| extend ChildProcess = tostring(split(NewProcessName, "\\")[-1])
| where ChildProcess in~ (SuspiciousChildProcesses)
| where not(CommandLine has_any (AllowlistedCmdPatterns))
| extend
ChildCmdLine = CommandLine,
AccountName = SubjectUserName,
AccountDomain = SubjectDomainName,
HostName = Computer,
EventTime = TimeGenerated,
NetworkActivity = CommandLine has_any (NetworkIndicators),
CredentialActivity = CommandLine has_any (CredentialIndicators)
| project EventTime, HostName, AccountName, AccountDomain, ChildProcess,
ChildCmdLine, NetworkActivity, CredentialActivity;
union MDE_Results, SecEvent_Results
| extend RiskScore = iif(CredentialActivity == true, 3, iif(NetworkActivity == true, 2, 1))
| sort by RiskScore desc, EventTime desc
Declared entities
Related content
Links established from declared identifiers and solution manifests.
Source provenance
GitHubDisplayed values come from files in Azure/Azure-Sentinel. They describe the published template, not your workspace configuration.
- Commit
9800e51↗- Source identifier
3c8e5f0b-1d4a-4b69-9c2e-7f0d3a5e8b1f
GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING
Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC